Best Eats — Lucille Malone’s hearty food intermingles with Gilpin ghost stories

By Margaret Malsam

“Who was Lucille Malone?” That was my question when I dined at the Gilpin Casino’s upstairs restaurant called Lucille Malone’s in Black Hawk. I immediately liked the restaurant’s lovely décor and relaxed atmosphere away from the hustle and bustle of the gaming downstairs. It’s a place where you can gather with friends and visit.

I ordered the Colossal $7.77 Shrimp Platter, which is so named because it features a whopping dozen plus fried shrimp served with your choice of sides. I chose mixed vegetables and fresh slices of pineapple, honey dew and cantaloupe. It was more than I could eat.

As I dined on my tasty lunch, I soon found out the restaurant was named after a dead lady who has made her ghostly presence felt by several employees. Linda Smith, food and beverage manager, sat down and started explaining Lucille (Lucy) Malone’s story. Soon Phil Hoggat, manager on duty, and Andy Bunner, maintenance manager, also started telling more ghostly stories about Lucy, a Black Hawk schoolmarm who lived in the Gilpin in 1905 in a second floor room near the restaurant’s present kitchen.

Legend says this lady still lives in the Gilpin Hotel casino. After a devastating fire, only the hotel’s walls remained standing for many years. During renovation, construction workers say they heard her voice and saw her image. Previous owners and hotel guests also reported ghostly encounters with Lucy. The Gilpin Hotel opened its doors as a casino in 1992. It was expanded and remodeled in 2003.

Smith, who has been employed at the Gilpin for 18 years, told me about a strange ghostly experience that she had when she placed a tray of glasses on a level counter.

“Suddenly the whole tray flew off and all the glasses were broken,” she said.

“We’re all like family here,” explained Manager Hoggat, who has been with the casino for more than 10 years He said employees reported ghostly stories, such as a heavy carafe flying off the bar and onto the floor.

Bunner, who has worked at the Gilpin for nine years, said some employees believe they have seen Lucy. “Others feel a strange presence of someone behind them or in the room. Sometimes they feel a cool breeze,” he said.

As the ghost story goes, Lucy fell deeply in love with a man named Jonathan who was stricken with tuberculosis and was moving to New Mexico for his health. Lucy was desperate to go with him and went to a school board meeting to ask for a leave of absence. While she was there, Jonathan was run down on the street by a wagonload of drunkards. He died shortly afterwards, and Lucy felt her life was shattered. In her words, “my heart was torn from my soul at the loss.”

After being dismissed by the school board and branded “scarlet,” the depressed lady jumped off the second floor balcony of the Gilpin Hotel. A few days later she died from her injuries along with a broken heart.

After I finished my hearty lunch and hearing ghost stories, the waitress brought by a most-tempting dessert tray showcasing their walnut carrot cake, New York cheesecake, Black Forest cake, and ice cream sundae. She said slices of fruit pies also were available. I couldn’t resist sampling the walnut carrot cake, which was delicious.

I then went downstairs to look at Gilpin’s main bar, once called the Mother Lode. A hand painted mural above the bar shows a narrow-gauge railroad in mining days passing by the Gilpin. Another main floor mural portrays the artist ‘s interpretation of Lucy Malone and Jonathan.

If you dine in the restaurant near where Lucy’s room was perhaps, you too may feel her ghostly presence Perhaps she may bring you good luck.

Gilpin dining tips
• Club Tuesdays offer special discounts for seniors.
• Check the monthly menu specials for everybody.
• Soups are made from scratch daily by Sous Chef Ken Ziegler. Try the delicious turkey vegetable soup made with ground turkey chopped tomatoes, cilantro, celery, onions, paprika, cayenne pepper and garbanzo beans.
• Look for a sweet salad on the soup ‘n salad bar every day that doubles as a dessert, such as Rocky Road, a rich chocolate pudding mixed with almonds and covered with miniature marshmallows.
• Get soup and salad bar free with “from the grill” entrees” which start at $17.99.
• On weekends, a hot dog station on first floor near the escalator sells quick snacks and chips, such as Polish and Italian dogs or Vienna wieners on poppy seed buns.
• Joe Daniel, the new chef, plans to put delicious gumbos on the menu.
• Dine from 11 a.m. to 1:30 a.m. on Sunday through Thursdays or until 2:30 a.m. on Friday and Saturday nights.